Paul Rodino, Julie "Tink" Markytan and Terry Lynn Spry Featured Artists for November at ACT Gallery

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, November 7, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for our November featured artists: “Drive-By” by Paul Rodino. Showing off the main gallery: a surrealist exhibit by Terry Lynn Spry and the mixed media art sculptures of “Tink” Julie Markytan.  This exhibit continues through December 01, 2014.   

Paul Rodino

 In the Main Gallery – “Drive-By” by Paul Rodino

Paul Rodino was born in New York, raised in Cape Coral and then went west to find his muse. Receiving his initial photography training at the Colorado Institute of Art in the early 80's. He later went and changed his environment and major to get his degree in Fashion Illustration and Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

For the past 28 years he¹s worked as a Graphic Designer/Art Director for various ad agencies and publications throughout Southwest Florida. Over the past 14 years, he has been using a combination of traditional and modern photo techniques to expose and explore moments in everyday life. He finds relaxation observing and finding those little moments of time to capture, each one becoming its own keepsake.

 SHOW STATEMENT: "Drive-By" is a showcase of the great American automobile, the roads they travel and the signage that guides them on their journey. Each composite image is transferred to a series of vintage maps from the 50's, 60's and 70's.

"Tink" Markytan

In the White Gallery – Julie “Tink” Markytan

Julie “Tink” Markytan arrived in Fort Myers in 2002 traversing the nation from my previous home in Seattle. In so doing, she retired from my previous career in the film business.  Her artwork encompassed various mediums through the years until settling upon sculpture. The alchemy of creativity ignites within her as she physically touches and works the materials, allowing them to guide her to the result. “Tink” loves using recycled materials. A journey to the salvage yard is like finding buried treasure for her, each item an inspirational jewel. "To everything there is a purpose" and then the potential to becoming art, “ states Tink.

Off the Main Gallery – Terry Lynn Spry

 Terry Lynn’s paintings have been exhibited in national and local juried art exhibitions.   In addition, her work can be found in private collections across the country.   She won honourable mention in Artist Magazine in December 2012 issue.  She graduated from Phoenix Institute of Technology with a degree in production art and went onto study under Nina Conner.  Terry Lynn paints in oils on canvas.  She loves to create paintings that tell stories.  She considers painting same as breathing and better than chocolate.  

Terry Lynn Spry

Arts for Act: Danielle Branchaud - Sandra Yeyati - Marianne Cush...

Arts for Act: Danielle Branchaud - Sandra Yeyati - Marianne Cush...: Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, October 03, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening recep...

Danielle Branchaud - Sandra Yeyati - Marianne Cushing at ACT Gallery

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, October 03, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for our October featured artists: “Disparate Forces” by Artist Danielle Branchaud and the photography of Sandra Yeyati.  Book signing with Marianne Cushing, “Mahalas Lane.”   This exhibit continues through November 3, 2014. 

Dissolve by Danielle Branchaud

In the Main Gallery – “Disparate Forces” An exhibition of selected works by Danielle Branchaud for Domestic Violence Awareness Month

“Disparate Forces” will try to convey Branchaud’s  work as contrasting forces within or without a person that affects the progress of our lives. Most of the artwork features the emotional and subconscious translation of such forces, be it violent and unbalanced or hopeful and uplifting. Regardless of where such reactions fall on the emotional spectrum, each is essential to the development of the human spirit.  “In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the purposes of the ACT program and gallery, I’ve carefully chosen old and new works to reflect the issues presented. Although during the emotional development of a person there are bound to be obstacles, nothing compares to the onslaught of negative forces that occur to one who has been the recipient of violence, be it physical, sexual or mental. In honor of those who have overcome such obstacles, I present these works with written narratives to correlate to the illustration of that emotional progress; of the propensity for the human spirit to overcome such forces. I myself have only tasted the tiniest fraction of such negative forces; but I observe the ability of people, particularly women, to rise up from the ashes of abuse and neglect. Through this art I wish to share the incredible endurance of the human spirit and the value of every life,” states Danielle Branchaud.

Danielle’s  work walks a tightrope between fantasy and surrealism, into an honest realm of pure visceral emotion.  Her new work is intended to reach new depths, delving into her personal world of dreamscapes. The nightmarish imagery used to illuminate those unconscious thoughts serve as further exploration into the things that make us human.  She was born in Canada in 1985. Danielle has been painting with acrylics since 2003, resides in Florida, and is continuing her series work as well as various commissions and projects.

Hope by Sandra Yeyati

In the White Gallery - Naples Photographer Explores Beauty in Decay

In a show titled “Decay is Beautiful,” emerging photo artist Sandra Yeyati will display more than 40 of her works in the white gallery.  While several of Yeyati's pieces have been juried into local and national competitions and displayed in Naples and Fort Myers galleries, as well as the pages of Gulfshore Life magazine, this is her first major exhibit. All images will be signed, first edition, archival prints of limited lots. In the digital darkroom, Yeyati layers multiple photographs that she has taken of people and textures into one composition, creating painterly images while honoring the photographic elements. Art critic Donald Miller compared one of her pieces to the expressionist paintings of Alexej von Jawlensky.  Yeyati says, “I am mesmerized by the fractal beauty of decay and deterioration as it forms strange patterns in surprising colors and tones. Faces also fascinate me; I look to them for answers to eternal questions about identity and the way our surroundings influence our sense of self. Many of us hide inconceivable secrets behind a simple smile. Every one of my compositions is a confession.”

For more information about the artist, visit SandraYeyati.com.

Book Signing with Local author, Marianne Cushing

Meet local author, Marianne Cushing and pick up a signed copy of her novel “Mahalas Lane.”   

Arts for Act: Cesar Aguilera and Rachel Moorman featured for Sep...

Arts for Act: Cesar Aguilera and Rachel Moorman featured for Sep...: J oin Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, September 5, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening re...

Cesar Aguilera and Rachel Moorman featured for September at ACT Gallery

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, September 5, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for our September artists. “Anthologies and Other Echoes” by Cesar Aguilera and off the Main Gallery, Rachel Moorman will be showing her “story-telling” art.  This exhibit continues through September 29, 2014. 

Cesar Aguilera was born in Quito, Ecuador; he navigated his childhood by virtue of creative observation, learning from his first curiosities onward that imagination and ingenuity have critical roles to play within our human experiences of life.  Exploring these roles has led to a lifetime of experimental works and has taken Cesar through a vast spectrum of mediums, techniques, materials and subject matter.  Although his approach is always in flux, his objective remains constant: to use art as a means of contributing to the design of solutions regarding problems which plague our world and the societies that inhabit it.

 

Artist Statement by Cesar Aguilera

“Anthologies and other Echoes”   As humans we have conquered every other animal species and transformed the land to our liking; we conquered the planet. But, now what?  Anthologies and other Echoes portrays all of humanity’s achievements in science, arts, politics and all the fields of human thought as seen from the future, looking back at this civilization that had it all, conquered all, but didn’t know what to do with it and lose it all at the end.  We haven’t reached that point yet. This dramatic presentation is a way to emphasize that we are still on time to curb our insatiable hunger, reduce consumption and use all of our brilliance and ingenuity to reverse the damage already done. There is no other planet ship like this. We repair the damage to stay afloat; or we will surely drown.

Off the Main Gallery:
Rachel Mooran’s is an artist native of Chicago, Illinois. She has called Southwest Forida her home since 1999. Rachel specializes in several different mediums, but is known predominately for her ‘story telling’ acrylic paintings, custom painted shoes and her unique Japanese paper-cutting i). Rachel has won over twenty–five awards in shows around the Chicagoland area. She has worked with designers in Southwest Florida since 2001, doing mural work.  She is currently working on several new paintings and paper-cut jewelry art pieces.

 

May 2, 2014 Arts for ACT Gallery Guest Artists Dale Weber, Allan Tiller and Mary-Louise Hooper

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, May 2, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for our May featured artists: Mixed Media/Found Objects Artist Dale Weber, Photographer Allan Tiller and Painter Dr. Mary Louise Hooper.  This exhibit continues through June 2, 2014.  

 Dale Weber   -  Searching for the significant hidden within the insignificant, the art of Dale Weber reveals an inner beauty of the mundane. His art is a metaphoric vehicle for the overlooked, abandoned, and forgotten elements within today's society. It urges a reassessment of values in a disposable world.   Emerging as a young painter in the early 1970’s, Dale Weber was invariably drawn to subjects that bore the passage of time with a quiet dignity. In his continued quest to find the essence of age, he required a different form of expression. Eight years ago, he turned to ‘objet trouve’; the art of found objects. His 2D assemblages and 3D constructions offer a new perspective. The subject has become the medium.  Dale Weber only uses discarded materials are no longer able to serve their original purpose. For this reason, he prefers the term reinvented rather than recycled. He uses items in an ‘as found’ condition defining the natural beauty of lives well-lived. By careful selection and placement, these objects enter into dialogues expressing the artist’s views that range from social commentary to the philosophical.

“My goal is to inspire others to see the world through new eyes. Often beauty is cloaked in shabbiness. We must look beneath the surface to find the intrinsic value.  In today’s world all deserve a second look, a second chance.  Awareness is the first step of change.” ~ Dale Weber.

Allan Tiller  is a SW Florida resident and photographer by choice, having moved here from the Chesapeake Bay area in 2003. The diversity of natural beauty is a constant source of inspiration.   After a career including Illustration, teaching at The Art Institute of Philadelphia and painting, photography has become the medium of choice, largely due to the changing physical abilities brought about by Multiple Sclerosis.   He takes great pleasure in sharing his vision of the unseen details of the natural world.

Dr. Mary-Louise Biasotti Hooper is a national and international prize-winning artist, painting seascapes, landscapes, cityscapes, abstraction and still life. Her purpose is to bring viewers a moment of respite and beauty in their stressful lives by taking them away to another place.  As one buyer stares, her work is "...peaceful calming nature scenes with the ability to convert deep feelings to canvas".  Born in Greenwich Village, New York City, to an Italian immigrant family, the yearly art shows in Washington Square Park influenced her desire to paint.  Since art was not encouraged as a way to make a living, she entered the field of Education. Her art became a self-taught hobby until completing art degrees in 1999 & 2002.  Today, besides producing art, she conducts art classes and workshops for adults in all media. Influenced greatly by the work of Cezanne and de Steel, she calls much of her work "Slightly Expressionistic".  Recent innovative work ventures into abstracted images. 

Opening April 4th 2014 at ACT Gallery - George Mitchell, Ray Hernandez and Roy Benton III

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, April 4, from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for our April featured artists Photographer and Author George Mitchell, Painter Ray Hernandez and Sculptor Roy Benton III.  This exhibit continues through April 28, 2014. 

1967 Photography by George Mitchell

George Mitchell has been making serious photographs since his senior year in high school, when he began photographing traditional blues artists he located or visited with a Kodak Instamatic camera. He began making more professional photographs in 1967, when the University of Minnesota School of Mass Communication and Journalism lent him a camera.  He went to Mississippi for the summer to record, photograph, and interview traditional blues musicians.  This trip resulted in a Master of Arts paper and his first book, Blow My Blues Away, was published by Louisiana State University Press.  For several years in the late 1960's and early 1970's, he was a reporter in Columbus, Georgia.  Under the tutelage of the photographers at the Columbus Ledger, he took the photographs, which appeared with his stories.  At the Columbus Times, he was a reporter, a photographer, and later executive editor.  During that period, he produced his second book of photographs and text, I’m Somebody Important.  He then decided to become a photography teacher, and returned to the University of Minnesota where he studied photography teaching in both the journalism and art departments.  He taught photography in Atlanta at four high schools for a total of 25 years.  He also authored five more books of photographs and interviews.  There have been a number of solo exhibitions of his photographs over the years, including three in Atlanta; one in Columbus, Georgia (a number of his photographs are in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art); Sacramento, California; Utrecht, Holland; Jackson, Mississippi (at the Mississippi Museum of Art); Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Fort Myers.  Mitchell, who spent his first two years in Fort Myers, before moving to Atlanta, has returned to Fort Myers, where he continues to photograph for exhibition and publication.

 

Bon Bon by Hernandez

Raymond Hernandez was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Puerto Rican, descent.  He grew up amongst the rural nature of LaBelle, Florida and developed a passion for botany, art, and photography.  Hernandez was awarded scholarships from the U.S. Sugar Corp. and the Art Institute of Dallas. His study of fine art and graphic communication, began his career in Texas.  In 1985, he moved to New York City, exhibiting his art while illustrating and designing for such cliental as: Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Lancome, Coty, Revlon and Avon. His art has been published both national and internationally on cosmetic packaging, shopping bags, promotional, and novelty products.  Hernandez returned to Florida in 2005 to focus on his fine art and encountered numerous artists on a similar path of exhibiting, creating and working together to bring the arts to Southwest Florida.  He currently teaches art to children and teens in various Lee, Hendry, and Glades County programs. He was awarded The City of Fort Myers Art and Culture Individual Artist Grant for 2012, 2013 and strives to keep the arts alive.  For more information Email: ray06usa@yahoo.com


Roy L. Benton III a Florida native, grew up in Fort Myers. He is a fourth generation of Marine Contractors and is a Certified General Contractor. Benton, in his spare time enjoys creating art. His art consists of metal, wood sculptures and photography.  “I taught myself how to weld as a young child when I would go to work with my father at his marine construction company.  My grandfather built custom homes and I learned woodworking from him.  My uncle, Darryl Pottorf, an international artist taught me an assortment of valuable techniques. He loves where he grew up and his art reflects things that have been a part of his life.  Benton loves to fish, dive and enjoys the outdoors. His latest collection of artwork reflects this and revolves around the marine life and his passion for nature. 

Roy Benton III Metal Sculpture